Cord-cutters still hooked on cable news only want one thing from CNN: a standalone streaming subscription to the channel. Maybe this new CNN Max product will be that? Not a chance.
Expand Expanding Close
More and more mobile devices are being released every year with better and higher quality cameras, allowing nearly anyone to share the news faster than a major news corporation can even fathom. Founded in 2014 by Thiel fellow John Meyer, Fresco puts a focus on getting citizen journalism the credit it deserves. Today Fresco announced an Apple TV version of their Fresco News app, which curates the best content of the day, and delivers facts on international events in a fresh way.
Image: n3rdabl3.co.uk
Popular iOS and Android apps from companies like Walmart, ESPN, Slack and SoundCloud have been found vulnerable to password cracking, according to a recent report from AppBugs. The security firm found that dozens of the most popular apps are lacking, in that they allow you to make any number of attempts to login without restriction. These clearly opens up a gap for attackers who have the means to guess those passwords and gain access to your accounts.
The most secure apps will force you to reset your password if you don’t enter it correctly, or they’ll lock you out after you’ve made a certain number of attempts.
AppBugs tested the most popular apps to see how they stacked up. It checked 100 popular apps which support password-protected web accounts and limited themselves to apps which had been downloaded at least 1 million times. Of those 100 apps, 53 were found to have the vulnerability.
Re/code has an interesting look at the three different approaches major news organizations are taking to their Apple Watch apps.
The New York Times will dispatch one-sentence stories that answer the question, “Hey, did you hear?” in a conversational tone. The Washington Post will pick one story — say, an article about the end of tipping — and storyboard it like a movie or TV show, using a combination of graphics, images and text to adapt it for the 38 mm (or 42 mm) screen. CNN will let people personalize their news feeds by picking from among a dozen topics and choosing how they’d like to be notified (a tap on the wrist or no?).
News organizations weren’t particularly quick to adapt to the Internet, trying to stick to their existing business models in the face of rapidly-changing consumer behaviour, but this time the major players believe they are ready …
Just a day after the last Apple TV channel refresh, CNNgo has added more news content to the set-top box lineup. The new channel appears to require an active cable subscription to view live content, but on demand news content is available without authenticating a subscription. This marks the first time content from CNN has been available on the Apple TV.
CNN today pushed out an update to its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch application with a pair of features that some users will find significant: a Today widget for iOS 8’s Notification Center and a sports section. The widget is populated with the latest top stories from CNN, while the sports section sources its content from Bleacher Report, which has a dedicated App Store app (iPhone, iPad). CNN also says this version includes various bug fixes, like every app update that has come before it.
<em><a href="http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/apple-offering-new-u2-album-songs-of-innocence-for-free-on-itunes/">Tim Cook and U2 at this year’s iPhone 6 event</a></em>
Apple CEO Tim Cook ranked well on CNN Money’s list of best CEOs of 2014 taking the top spot of CEO of the year. The news organization said Cook has “arguably the toughest CEO job in America” as he battles critics skeptical of his performance running Apple without Steve Jobs and cited the company’s 40% stock climb this year as well as the debut of the iPhones 6 and Apple Pay ahead of the Apple Watch early next year.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple showed off a number of its own apps at last week’s iPhone 6 event to illustrate how the larger display phones can show content in new ways, specifically using the iPad-like two-column view in landscape mode.
Apple also encouraged developers to update their own apps to take advantage of the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays rather than relying on system scaling to blow up content made for 4-inch displays, and CNN’s news app for iPhone was the shining example of what third-party app makers can do.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Former White House Press Secretary for the Obama Administration Jay Carney is joining CNN as a political commenter, Politico reports. The announcement was made by the cable network and Carney today.
“I’m thrilled to be joining CNN at a time when there is so much happening in the nation and the world,” Carney said in a statement.
Carney’s move to CNN surely means the end to reports that the former White House Press Secretary is in the running for Apple’s top PR spot vacated by now-retired Katie Cotton. Re/code reported earlier this year that Carney was among the top candidates in the running for that role, and Bloomberg later corroborated that report. This likely means Apple was in talks with Carney, but Apple and Carney will be going in different directions. The search for a ‘friendlier, more approachable’ PR chief continues.
If there’s one thing as certain as the hype when Apple launches a new iPhone, it’s the “Apple is doomed” messages when the new model(s) fail to meet every single analyst prediction, no matter how crazy. Apple could add a matter transporter function to the iPhone 6 and some analyst would be complaining that it only operates on WiFi when they were expecting it to use LTE.
Business Insider pointed to a set of CNN charts which show that, typically, the AAPL stock price is down a month after a new iPhone launch. But any similar dip we might see after the launch of the iPhone 6 is no cause for concern: with the exception of 2013, Apple stock has been climbing since the first iPhone was launched in 2007.
As ever, make your own investment decisions with the aid of professional advice, but there certainly doesn’t appear to be any reason to be spooked if the launch of the new iPhone leads to some investors selling their shares. “Buy on the rumor, sell on the news” is a very common approach.
Update: Apple tells us CNN submitted fixes for both their iPhone and iPad apps that are now live on the App Store.
Security researchers at Zscaler claim to have found a security flaw in CNN’s iPhone app that exposes personal login and passwords of its users. The CNN app for iPhone, which includes an iReport feature that allows users to sign-up and submit news stories, is reportedly not using SSL encryption for registration/login and SSL certificate pinning like its Android app counterpart and sending the personal user info to and from the app unencrypted. The report notes that CNN’s iPad app is not subject to the same vulnerability as it currently doesn’t have the iReport feature:
The current CNN for iPhone App (verified on Version 2.30 (Build 4948)) has a key weakness whereby passwords for iReport accounts are sent in clear text (unencrypted). While this is always a problem, it’s especially concerning that this relates to functionality which permits people to anonymously submit news stories to CNN. This occurs both when a user first creates their iReport account and during any subsequent logins.
As can be seen, both transmissions are sent in clear text (HTTP) and the password (p@ssword) is sent unencrypted, along with all other registration/login information. The concern here is that anyone on the same network as the user could easily sniff the victim’s password and access their account. Once obtained, the attacker could access the iReport account of the user and compromise their anonymity. The same credentials could be used to access the user’s web based iReport account where any past submissions are also accessible.
Zscaler said it notified CNN of the security flaw on July 15th and that the company confirmed it’s investigating. The CNN app for iPhone received an update today with “bug fixes” listed in the release notes, but the company is yet to confirm if the update was to address the security flaw detailed by Zscaler.
CNN has updated its iOS apps for iPhone and iPad with new icons and a new user interface optimized for the sleek look of iOS 7.
Both the smartphone and tablet apps now support iOS 7’s Dynamic Type feature which allows users to adjust the system font in the iOS Settings app. This means you can make the default text view either larger or smaller depending on your preference. Version 2.0 also brings a number of bug fixes to the app.
Download CNN for iPhone and CNN for iPad for free from the App Store.
Expand
Expanding
Close
With the launch of Mavericks imminent, a handful of major websites have begun supporting the Safari Push Notification feature. These sites include The New York Times, NBA.com and social network Pinterest. HTML 5 web notifications have been supported by all major browsers, including Safari, for a while. However, the HTML 5 native feature requires the page to be open for notifications to be sent, as noted by MacRumors.
Meanwhile, Safari Push Notifications mirror the user experience associated with native app push notifications. With user consent, a supporting website can send notifications to your Mac without the page (or even, Safari) being open. This is because this system uses Apple’s Push Notification Service servers — rather than the local client — to function. Because of this server-side integration, the utility of website notifications increases dramatically.
With major support already implemented by such big sites, it seems like this will be a big deal for end-users. More sites will undoubtedly roll out support in the coming days. For instance, CNN was used to demo the feature at WWDC but is yet to go live publicly. Mavericks is expected to launch by the end of the week. It is very likely Apple will confirm the OS’ launch date at its special media event later today.
Expand
Expanding
Close
CNN reports that the childhood home of Steve Jobs could soon become a protected historical site as a Los Altos Historical Commission is set to perform an evaluation of the property today. The property, located at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, was Jobs’ childhood home since the seventh grade and its garage later became the location where Jobs, Steve Wozniak and other early employees would build the first Apple computers before officially forming the company in 1977.
The seven-member Los Altos Historical Commission has scheduled a “historic property evaluation” for the single-story, ranch-style house on Monday… If the designation is ultimately approved, then the house on 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, will have to be preserved…
Expand
Expanding
Close
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=osRNt8ai9FM]
The World Ends with You: Solo Remix: Square Enix has reworked the title originally released for Nintendo DS in 2007 with an all new combat system, HD art, and new music. The $18 iOS port (and $19 iPad version) has made a few changes that hardcore fans of the game are not too pleased with, but overall first impressions have been positive.
Square Enix’s fresh-faced hit The New York Times called “one of the best role playing games ever designed for anything” has busted onto iOS in a big way… Enjoy the game in full HD on your Retina-enabled iPhone 4 or later device. Art and animation across the game has been redrawn just for this release, making combat a beautiful experience. This is how all 2D classics should look.
CNN app for iPad version 1.7: CNN’s iPad app, in addition to its official iPhone app, was updated today with the ability to follow the 2012 presidential race through CNN’s U.S. Election Center. The update also includes improved “easy-to-use navigation” for browsing stories and video.
Clueful: A few weeks back we mentioned that BitDefender’s iOS app for detecting apps that access private data was removed from the App Store without much explanation from Apple. Today the company has relaunched the Clueful app as a web app accessible from your iOS devices at Cluefulapp.com. The new web app will let you manually search for info on any given app, opposed to the previous app that would detect the apps running on your device.
Expand
Expanding
Close
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JcSu7h-I40]
Apple made popular the use of touchscreen technology, but Jeff Han produced large multi-touch displays long before the iPhone’s mid-2007 launch. Now, Microsoft announced it would buy the company he founded.
According to a press release, Perceptive Pixel’s multi-touch tech, which is capable of detecting up to 100 touch events or 10 simultaneous users simultaneously, first gained recognition in 2008—despite its founding over two years earlier:
In 2008 its technology gained widespread recognition for transforming the way CNN and other broadcasters covered the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In 2009 the Smithsonian awarded the company the National Design Award in the inaugural category of Interaction Design. PPI’s patented technologies are used across a wide variety of industries such as government, defense, broadcast, energy exploration, engineering and higher education, and its expertise in both software and hardware will contribute to success in broad scenarios such as collaboration, meetings and presentations.
Han’s technology is often brought up as “prior art” in the context of Apple’s multi-touch patents. However, as Han said above, the technology has its roots in the 80s and what you do with technology is the thing that counts.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Perceptive Pixel’s 82-inch screens retail at about $80,000 each, according to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer at a conference in Toronto today, and they are able to run Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft even demonstrated the duo at an event in February (video above).
Today’s apps and updates news kicks off with four free apps from publisher McGraw-Hill, which was one of Apple’s partners for the iBooks textbooks launch in January, as well as big updates to popular apps such as Instagram, Facebook Messager, Facebook Pages Manager, and Words With Friends HD. McGraw-Hill Education is attending the International Society for Technology in Education conference this week, and it is offering some of its best-selling apps free. Starting today until June 27, you can grab the following textbooks free:
Fusion Reading The Vocabulary Process
Instagram version 2.5.0: One of the most notable apps to receive an update today is Facebook’s Instagram with version 2.5 bringing a number of noteworthy features listed below:
– Revamped profile tab
– Search for users and tags in the Explore tab
– Improvements to commenting
– User search autocompletes based on people you follow
– Visual improvements
– Speed optimizations
– Optionally share likes to Facebook (enable in your Profile > Sharing Settings > Facebook)
Facebook Messenger version 1.8: The Facebook Messenger iOS app received a decent update today that includes the following features in addition to “More-reliable push notifications” and “Faster app loading, navigating and sending”:
– Quickly switch between multiple conversations with in-app notifications
– Include friends of friends in conversations
– Swipe to delete individual messages from conversations
– See who’s available when you start a new conversation
– Share bigger photos, tap for full screen and pinch to zoom
Facebook Pages Manager version 1.1: Facebook also updated its Pages manager app with the features listed below as well as the usual bug fixes and performance updates:
• View and reply to messages
• Adjust how often you receive notifications about Pages activity
• See answers to questions and guest lists for events created on your Pages
• Insights added for checkins
CNN App for iPad version 1.6: The CNN iPad app, like many others after the launch of the third-gen iPad, has been updated with enhanced imagery to support the device’s Retina display.
Groupon version 1.6.6: Groupon was updated today with a number of welcomed features, including: the ability to make appointments with Groupon Scheduler for iPhone users, support for users in Chile, and various tweaks and “beautification efforts” to the app’s UX.
Words With Friends HD version 5.0: One of Zynga’s most popular titles was updated today to version 5.0, which mostly brings a number of enhancements for iPad users:
-Interface enhancements will make all those “wanted” posters look out of date!
*Words is “strapped” with a new side menu!
*Surveillance is key! Turn the iPad and enjoy our new landscape mode!
*Words iPad now supports Retina display, so you can analyze every last detail of the scene.
-All this crime has made us more concerned about security!
-Enhanced app security!
-Bug fixes and optimizations!
Gmail version 1.2.7812: We already told you all about today’s update to the Gmail iOS app that brought Notification Center support, alternate sender addresses, and persistent logins. You get can all the information here.
[vodpod id=Video.16054122&w=650&h=420&fv=]
After The New York Times published a lengthy two-part piece covering the controversial working conditions of Apple’s supply chain within Foxconn factories in China, other publications are doing their own investigative work to find out more informtion. The NYT’s second installment brought us the backstory of Foxconn worker Lai Xiaodong leading up to his death at a factory explosion in Chengdu. Today, CNN published a video of journalist Stan Grant who recently sat down for an interview with a current Foxconn employee and iPad display assembler:
“I can’t bear it anymore. Everyday was like, I get off from work and I go to bed. I get up in the morning, and I go to work. It became my daily routine and I almost felt like I was some kind of animal.”
The video starts off with Grant showing “Miss Chen,” who requested her name be changed for the interview, and the finished iPad she helps assemble on a daily basis but has never used. Miss Chen told CNN her Foxconn bosses informed her not to talk with media or “criminal liability shall be investigated according to law.” Chen, a poor Chongqing university student, said she took the one-month job with no experience on promises of “great benefits and little overtime.” Chen described her experience upon arriving at Foxconn:
Expand
Expanding
Close
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-fU-knxT0U&t=1h1m55s&start=3720]
Apple received a mention in a big way during CNN’s Southern Republican Presidential Debate held yesterday at the North Charleston Coliseum in South Carolina. The debate featured Republican Presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. At one point (mark 1:01:55), CNN host John King asked the candidates in the light of the ongoing Foxconn controversy to lay out their plans to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States.
More precisely, King zeroed in on the fact that Apple is “a breathtakingly important American company” that employs most of its workforce in retail stores, but hires half a million low-paid workers through its Far East suppliers and contract manufacturers that actually assemble its products (just like any other technology company does, mind you). Santorum has “a plan in place” to put this strategy to an end (quote right below the fold), as do other candidates. They also talked SOPA and discussed other burning issues. Just watch the clip…
Hot off the heels of Apple’s iBook Textbooks and iBooks Author announcement, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Company passed a $400 billion market cap briefly today, AllThingsD pointed out. Apple also saw a new company record of $431 a share this afternoon —up $2 from yesterday’s record. As the afternoon continued on, Apple’s market cap went down to $398 billion again, but it is still close to coming back. For comparison, the world’s most valuable company, Exxon, has a market cap of $417 billion. Apple was at one time the most valuable company in 2011.
As CNN Money pointed out, Apple with a market cap of $400 billion is worth more than the countries Greece, Austria, Argentina, and South Africa.
Apple dominated financially in 2011, and it continues in 2012. Next Tuesday, the company will report what is expected to be record earnings from Q4. Apple is also expected to break past the sales of 5 million Macs and up to 30 million iPhones, some analysts claimed. We will be covering Apple’s financial announcement next Tuesday. Stay tuned!
It’s Caucus Day in Iowa, and most Americans will be tuned into their favorite news channel to see who the winner will be. This year, though, the elections entered the twenty-first century due to The New York Times’ “Election 2012” free iPhone application available through the App Store.
According to the NYT, the app gives iPhone users “news, opinion, polls and live election night results,” from its own publication and other top sources, while providing “the best campaign coverage anywhere.”
The title says it all: “Letters to Steve: Inside the E-mail Inbox of Apple’s Steve Jobs“. A new book penned by CNN technology writer Mark Milian takes a look at the hundreds of emails between Jobs and the people that discovered his publicly available email address. It also includes never-before-published e-mails exclusive to the book, which is available starting today for $2.99 on Amazon.
This book is based on interviews with many of the customers and fans Jobs communicated with. These tales reveal the intricacies of how Jobs portrayed himself as likable and accessible through direct interaction with fans. He handled customer-service inquiries himself and carefully revealed hints about upcoming Apple products, guaranteeing headlines on blogs. However, some of these letters, when analyzed, provide a glimpse into his “reality distortion field,” in which he lobs insults, bends the truth and uses misdirection in order to manipulate anyone on the receiving end.
To accompany the release of the book, CNN is running a three-part series on their website. The first part in that series was published today and details Jobs’ emails related to customer service. Here’s an excerpt where customer Scott Steckley recalls receiving a phone call from Jobs after emailing him regarding a long wait for his Mac repair:
“Hi Scott, this is Steve,” Steckley recalled hearing from the other end of the phone.
“Steve Jobs?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Jobs said. “I just wanted to apologize for your incredibly long wait. It’s really nobody’s fault. It’s just one of those things.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Then Jobs explained that he expedited the repair. “I also wanted to thank you for your support of Apple,” Jobs said. “I see how much equipment you own. It really makes my day to see someone who enjoys our products so much and who supports us in the good times and bad.”
This next one has been posted before but is still entertaining:
Expand
Expanding
Close
Amazon today lists the Walter Issacson authorized Biography of Steve Jobs, the one commissioned by the Apple CEO last year. Issacson will have had three years of access to the normally reclusive Steve Jobs. Listed at 448 pages, the book will be published by Simon & Schuster.
Product Description
From bestselling author Walter Isaacson comes the landmark biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In iSteve: The Book of Jobs, Isaacson provides an extraordinary account of Jobs’ professional and personal life. Drawn from three years of exclusive and unprecedented interviews Isaacson has conducted with Jobs as well as extensive interviews with Jobs’ family members, key colleagues from Apple and its competitors, iSteve is the definitive portrait of the greatest innovator of his generation.About the Author
Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine. He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and ofKissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.
Before you get too excited however, the book doesn’t ship for nine months (March 2012). But even so, it will likely be a big hit and as you know with iPads, it is good to get in early.
The iBookstore has a placeholder as well:
Full Res book cover below:
